


Counting

by provincial-girl (MykaWells)



Category: Tomb Raider & Related Fandoms, Tomb Raider (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, Missing Scene, missing moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 16:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12346572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MykaWells/pseuds/provincial-girl
Summary: As Lara carries Sam down the mountain at the end of their ordeal, the pair spends some time in quiet conversation...





	Counting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Seika](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seika/gifts).



> I was poking around the requests list the other day, as I sometimes do while waiting for the collection to open, and I stumble upon this prompt from Seika for Tomb Raider that inspired me. So I wrote this little something based on that. Because, yes, I also really, really wish Sam hadn't been taken out of the narrative for Rise, and am also super bummed about her being retconned from the movie. Writing this little gift for someone who feels the same way made me feel better :)

Lara Croft was nothing if not a survivor. She found a way through her father’s death, found a way to survive a shipwreck and helicopter crash, even found a way to survive with a penetrating wound in the middle of a wilderness filled with homicidal madmen and a near immortal being. Lara always found a way, had her methods.

So she could do this one last physical task to get herself and Sam off of this godforsaken island. Lara could do this for Sam. She gritted her teeth and lifted Sam into her arms, ignoring the sharp, shooting pain as the wound in her abdomen threatened to pull open. It didn’t help that the adrenaline which had been coursing through her veins for the better part of a week was rapidly wearing off.

“No, Lara. I can tell you’re hurt,” Sam mumbled without opening her eyes. “I can walk.”

“Shh, just a flesh wound,” Lara said gently. “You just rest and we’ll be on the boat in no time.”

Sam mumbled some nonsense words and fell back asleep, resting her face against Lara’s chest. It felt so good to have Sam warm and safe and in her arms that Lara did her best not flinch as Sam pressed directly on a cut across her chest.

So that became Lara’s coping mechanism. When the pain got too bad, or Lara just wanted to sit down and cry out of grief and exhaustion and relief and pain, Lara counted the good things.

She counted the number of friends she had waiting for her at the boat. She counted the beautiful flowers along the side of the path, the sun shining brilliantly for the first time in what felt like forever.

Then she counted the faint few freckles dotting Sam’s face, and the number of fingernails that somehow still had specks of Sam’s red nail polish, the number of times Sam had cheered her up after a long, exhausting day of research, the number of times…

Sam’s eyes fluttered open, and she looked sleepily up at Lara. Lara stumbled a bit but quickly regained her balance, grimacing as she felt a fresh wave of pain shoot through her stomach and a dull ache throbbed in the ankle she’d already twisted more than once.

“You should stop,” Sam said. “We rest a little bit, and I think I can walk.”

“You were just possessed by an all-powerful being,” Lara said. “I am not letting you walk.”

“If only all my dates were so chivalrous,” Sam said with a grin as her eyes drifted closed. “Seriously if you need to stop, just drop me wherever and I’ll probably sleep for a little while.”

“I hope all of your dates don’t end with evil immortals getting summoned,” Lara said. This conversation, the easy banter was doing wonders for distracting her from the bone deep physical and emotional exhaustion she fought with every step.

“Depends on how kinky things get,” Sam said sleepily, her eyes still closed.

“Sam!”

“Oh, my god, I’m making you blush aren’t I? You are too easy,” Sam said, snuggling against Lara’s chest without opening her eyes.

Lara chuckled softly and shook her head.

“You’re shameless,” she said, more out of habit, because this was a familiar pattern they often fell into. “Get some rest though, regain your strength.”

“Mmm,” Sam hummed sleepily. “Just keep talking though, ok?”

Sam sounded so small and vulnerable, almost like she was begging Lara not to leave her, to stay present, not go too far inside herself. It felt bigger than this one moment.

Lara blinked back tears at the softness, the concern in Sam’s voice. Lara didn’t know if she could do that, keep herself from getting trapped in her own head and the fresh, horrible memories. But she would try, she could do that for Sam.

Lara cleared her throat to regain her composure.

“I remember,” she said, slowing and shortening her stride as she traversed a steep section of the mountain. “I remember the very first time I presented a paper in grad school, you stayed up all night the evening before, listening to that same damned talk over and over again and still came to the presentation the next day. You probably knew that paper inside and out by then, and you still came to see it.”

A faint smile passed over Sam’s lips, and Lara took that as encouragement to continue.

“Then I remember the time you talked me into getting all dressed up to go out on the town,” Lara said. “I still haven’t a clue how I poured myself into that dress. It really is no wonder I fell asleep in it. I could barely manage the garment while sober.”

Sam smiled again.

“Fantastic boobs though,” she mumbled.

Lara felt her cheeks burn at that, as they did at any mention of her physical attractiveness. Lara knew, had been told enough times to know, that she was a good looking person, but she never quite got use to it. Especially with Sam’s unapologetic, bold delivery. Lara liked when Sam said things like that. That was the part she really wasn’t use to.

“Yes, well, anyway,” Lara said after clearing her throat. “You looked quite nice as well.”

Still smirking, Sam mumbled something that sounded a lot like ‘I know.’

Lara stopped talking briefly at that point to focus on the trail, which narrowed as it took a sharp right turn down the mountain. She tried her best not to show the kind of physical toll this was taking on her body after the abuse she’d already put it through.

“Tell me about when we first met,” Sam said after a stretch of silence during which Lara was certain she had fallen asleep.

They both knew this story, knew it well from having recounted it to people who wondered how the bookish archeology student and the media mogul’s outgoing, party-loving daughter ended up best friends. But there was comfort in the familiar, in the happy, safe memories that took no effort at all to call to mind.

“It was a chance encounter, really.” Lara said. “I was studying in the coffee shop on campus for first big test of the school year, along with what appeared to be half to student population. I had my favorite table all to myself, then this girl comes and drops her backpack in the chair across from me. I looked up, and there you were.”

“I asked though,” Sam mumbled, her usual protest when Lara told that part of the story.

“You actually said ‘Sorry I have to sit here, there’s no other tables’ as you sat down, ” Lara said. “So I nodded and moved aside a few books. You were quiet for literally five minutes before you asked my name and then pretended you hadn’t ever heard of the Crofts. And I pretended I didn’t know who the Nishimuras were. We went back to studying for another five minutes before you decided what you were studying was too boring to deal with and tried to read my books upside down.”

“Your book had more interesting pictures,” Sam protested weakly with a soft smile.

“Well, regardless, I tried not to notice, but eventually ended up telling you about my independent study project, and you listened like you cared,” Lara said, pausing to collect herself, because of course Sam actually did care. She cared so much and how had Lara been so slow to realize that?

“You did care, I know that now,” Lara said. “ Anyway, you bought me a tea and got yourself a coffee, and you told me about your passion for film. Three hours later, we had made plans for another study session the next day where we actually studied. And the rest is history.”

“Good history,” Sam said.

“Even now?”

“Especially now,” Sam said with all the conviction her weak voice could muster. “You saved me.”

Lara was going to protest that Sam would likely not have needed saving if she hadn’t been around Lara in the first place, but the words died on her lips. She knew Sam would never believe that, would never let Lara even finish that sentence, so Lara just kept walking. She was able to pick up her pace just a bit as the path widened.

They turned a corner and the ocean came into view. Lara nearly cried in relief, because it finally hit her that this ordeal was was almost done. They were almost home, and Sam was safe. Lara had kept that promise.

Lara was sure Sam had fallen asleep when she felt Sam’s hand move and reach up the Lara’s shoulder, then the nape of Lara’s neck, tracing soft, lazy comforting patterns on the skin. It was gentle, comforting. Sam managed to lift her head up just a little to press her cheek into Lara’s bare skin. If she hadn’t been walking down hill with Sam in her arms, Lara might have closed her eyes and sighed contentedly. Since landing on this island it was some of the first physical contact she’d had that didn’t bring some kind of pain.

“You love me, don’t you?” Sam said softly after a few minutes. Her face was so close that Lara could feel Sam’s breath on her skin.

Lara’s breath caught in her throat, and she counted it a miracle that she didn’t stumble and drop Sam right there.

“Of course I do. You’re my best friend,” Lara said with forced confidence.

Sam shook her head. She seemed to be getting tired again, as her hand slowed and dropped rest on Lara’s shoulder.

“No, we’re not best friends?”

“Not like that, it’s more,” Sam said.

There was a long pause during which Lara didn’t know what to do aside from moving steadily towards the boat and hoping Sam dozed off and forgot all about this. Lara thought maybe Sam had fallen back asleep, that she could avoid, for a few more hours at least, acknowledging those feelings that were starting to come into sharper focus. Lara hadn’t even named it for herself, this more-than- friendship feeling, but Sam had. Because of course Sam could hone in with precision on the emotional undercurrent of any narrative, real or imagined. It was one of the many things that made her a remarkable filmmaker.

“I feel the same way too, you know,” Sam said. “I love you too.”

This time Lara actually stopped walking and looked down at Sam, who had forced her eyes open to look up and smile at Lara. Lara was glad she had stopped walking, because she definitely would have lost her focus with all the emotions swirling through her brain and Sam smiling and saying that like it was the simplest thing in the world.

Maybe it was. Maybe loving Sam was the easiest, steadiest thing in Lara’s life right now. Lara could definitely find a way to be ok with that. She smiled back and pressed a brief kiss on Sam’s forehead.

Sam closed her eyes and sighed contentedly.

“Mmm, always a lady of few words,” Sam said. “But I know you.”

“That you do,” Lara said, as she resumed her slow descent towards the shore. “Now get some rest and we’ll definitely talk when you’re feeling up for it, ok?”

Sam nodded, her energy fading quickly. It was as if she had used everything in her power to have that conversation because Lara needed it. Lara felt Sam’s body relax into her arms as the turned a corner and the Endurance crew caught sight of them approaching.

Lara’s whole body still ached and throbbed, and her psyche was battered and bruised, but she had Sam, safe in her arms. And now she could count the steps until they were on that boat, facing their future and healing. Together.

**Author's Note:**

> My first time trying to write for Tomb Raider, and it was a lot of fun, might have more fic for these two in me if I can get properly inspired. Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!


End file.
